Cost of an Accountant: What to Expect for US Small Business Services

Balancing the books yourself can be a daunting prospect, especially if you’re not well-versed in financial management.

Yet you might also assume that the cost of an accountant is too great to consider anything else. In this blog post, you’ll learn approximately how much you’ll need to pay to hire an accountant, what each service typically costs, and whether accounting software is a viable alternative.

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What’s the Cost of an Accountant for a Small Business?

The average cost of an accountant for a small business can vary depending on various factors including the size of your business, the complexity of your finances, and the number of employees on your books.

However, to give you a general idea of what you can expect to pay for an accountant to balance your books, here’s a brief overview:

Accountants in the US typically cost around ¹$38.41 per hour, though the amount you pay can vary according to the level of experience the accountant has, and where you’re based.

For example, New York is likely to be home to some of the ²most expensive accountant fees, as are the District of Columbia and New Jersey.

Cost of an Accountant by Service

If you’re looking for a list of accounting services according to cost, so you can pick and choose what you need, here’s a quick breakdown of ballpark costs:

Factors Affecting Accounting Costs

Unfortunately, there isn’t a one-price-fits-all solution for business accounting, since every business is different.

There are various factors to consider when calculating how much it’ll cost to bring an accountant on board, including the following:

• Complexity of services - The types of services you need from your accountant will determine how much you’ll need to pay to use their services. For example, a one-off tax preparation will likely cost you a lot less than a full financial health audit of your business.
• Size of your business - If you have a small business, the cost of hiring an accountant will be much lower than if you have a large business with many employees and revenue streams.
• Your location - Where you’re based also plays a role in how much you’ll have to pay to hire an accountant. For example, hiring an accountant in New York is likely to be more expensive than hiring one in Alabama.

Benefits of Hiring an Accountant

When you hire an accountant, you decide to outsource your business’s finances to someone else. While this can feel intimidating, there are a lot of reasons to place trust in a financial professional.

Save Time

One of the main reasons to outsource any task or responsibility as a business owner is to free up time so you can spend it on the most meaningful activities to generate revenue and grow the business.

When you hire an accountant, you won’t have to sit down every tax season to crunch the numbers and take the time to reconcile your bank statements once a month.

Get Expert Insights

An accountant that knows your business finances inside and out is well-positioned to give you the best advice on how to manage your finances.

WIth the right advice, you can cut your expenses and improve your business’s profitability with opportunities you might not have seen otherwise. Accountants can also help advise you of upcoming tax obligations and how much to set aside so you’re not blindsided.

Ensure Accuracy for Tax Obligations

Accountants are thorough in their work meaning you’re far less likely to encounter issues during the tax season than you would if you were crunching all the numbers yourself.

This can be a huge relief if you’re worried that you might make mistakes when preparing your taxes.

Is Accounting Software an Alternative to Hiring an Accountant?

If you’re not in a position where you can afford an accountant’s services, or you’d rather handle the process yourself so you fully understand your business finances, investing in accounting software might be a good option.

There are both paid and free versions of accounting software available that can streamline your financial management and offer similar services to an accountant.

With accounting software, you’ll have a suite of tools and features available to you that can help streamline the accounting process such as:

• Payroll management
• Forecasting
• Budgeting
• Billing and invoicing
• Reporting and analytics
• Tax preparation

The level of support you receive for each feature will vary depending on the accounting software you use, as will the amount of features available to you. If you do decide to use accounting software to handle your business finances, consider various options to make sure you find a solution that meets your business needs.

Many of these solutions can sync with your bank accounts too, so you don’t have to manually write out all of your transactions and categorize them accordingly.

Connect Wise Business to Accounting Software to Save Time

If you’re open to handling your business finances, connecting a Wise Business account to your preferred accounting software solution is a seamless way to crunch the numbers.

Open a Wise Business account online

Wise is not a bank, but a Money Services Business (MSB) provider and a smart alternative to banks. Here are some reasons to choose Wise Business:

• No monthly fees
• International payments at the mid-market rate
• Easy batch payments
• Connect to QuickBooks to track bill payments
• Designed to manage multiple currencies all in one place
• Receive payments like a local with major currency account details
• Hold over 40 currencies

Sources used:

Sources last checked on 9th December- 2024.